Xaleph

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Posts posted by Xaleph

  2. Posted · Report reply

    Hey, OCR. I've been a long-time lurker (since late '04 or early '05) and registered in '06 under the name Artemis Winter. I just recently did a collaboration with Xaleph over at AnimeRemix and decided to pay a visit back to my roots; so I made a new account under the standard name I go by and release under.

    I'm a vocalist rather than a remixer, happy to work with anyone with good ideas, and looking forward to lurking a little less lurk-tastically these days. :P

    This song was officially released recently ( http://www.animeremix.org/remix/96/ ). Lira provided some amazing vocals, it's good to see she came back to visit ocremix. (Apologies for IE users, patch will be incoming to fix some formatting issues).

  4. Posted · Report reply

    I'm such a sucker for Clamp in general - with that said I'd have to say that Code Geass R2 was probably my favorite Anime this summer. I thought that it was going to lose some steam since season one broke the 'novelty barrier' so to say. They really added a lot of great twists to the series and some new concepts that made the second season feel fresh. I do feel that if a third season rolls out, however, it's going to be more difficult to keep the same feeling.

    With that said, I still haven't seen the last episode. I don't want to watch it half-heartily in the morning before work, so I have to find some way of getting some free time at night between studies, kid and pregnant wife to watch it =/.

    The music for this series is amazing, and I plan to start remixing concept work soon (suggestions are always welcome).

  5. Posted · Report reply

    I know I'm digging this thing up from the dead but I thought I'd chime my two cents. I was in the beta test for Reason 4 and I even submitted enough bugs that I would have gotten a discount on Reason 4.0. I even bought it and while it was shipping I had it returned.

    I've used Reason since it's first version and once 3.0 was released, I was already looking on switching - and it's not because Reason 'sucks', it's because I felt limited by Reason with regards to work flow, sound engineering, and synth creation.

    The sound quality of Reason sounds great in Reason, and it sounds great when you Rewire it to other software. When you export a wav/aif file in Reason (no matter what options you use) the sound quality simply doesn't reflect what you could 'hear' when the song is played through Reason. There is a number of reasons this is the case, and I understand that the algorithms are increasingly complex with regards to making the sound 'perfect' for every user.

    It was when I started getting serious about music that I realized that Reason is really for the music enthusiast - the person who really enjoys writing music but doesn't have the time to spend hours on end trying to produce quality. So what Propellerheads did was create a software that would 'do' things for you so you wouldn't have to worry about it - with regards to sound engineering and synth production. Many of the VSTi's out there do the same thing. Now with Reason you CAN get awesome sound quality - but you literally have to 'trick' the software into exporting the sound you want rather than what you hear. For example, when I EQed my song bass light, the exported wav had the bass heavier and the song came out much crisper and cleaner. I felt like I was tricking the software to give me the sounds I wanted rather than producing what I could hear and monitor. This also leads me to - Reason's monitoring software is pretty lousy, compare the professional software out there that allows you to literally analyze every EQ cut of your entire song - individual tracks - and allow you to edit so that your sound comes out clean and crisp. Anyways, enough about trying to trash Reason.

    So why I switched from Reason 3.0.4 to Cubase 4.1.3 instead of upgrading to Reason 4.0 - these are the main reasons:

    1) Reason takes more time to create the same sound than what Cubase does. There are synths I want to spend a lot of time on, and there are sounds that I really shouldn't.

    I have Reaktor 5 if I want to sit around and plug in wires to ports all day and create my own synth module. I have NWBass for a really simple psybassline.

    With Reason, I would take the same amount of time to create both, unless I used a preset (Sir Nuts did a great job with his combinator set - much kudos!)

    2) Reason 4.0's Thor has some really neat features, but I just felt that even though you could 'build' your own synth, what other VSTi's had to offer just had higher quality.

    3) Live Audio recoding, importing, editing are all missing from Reason 4.0, and I found myself using either the redrummer, NN-19, or NN-XT to play long waves. I had to literally restart the song if I wanted to hear the wave or cut it up externally.

    4) Midi controllers, I have a few synths (go go Roland) at home that's been collecting dust since I got Reason. Now with Cubase, I can finally start utilizing it again.

    5) The biggest reason for my switch is Third Party support. I can't submit the Xaleph Maelstrom that has additional knobs or switches - or splices the sound differently. I can't create my own sound effect plugins using my own algorithm for a randomizer. These tools just don't exist outside the reuse of already existing products. Though the combinator and thor is really nice at allowing people to 'make' something similar, you are still are limited very specifically to what those devices can or cannot provide. With VST, I can program my own software OR I can use others. Though these are side effects from not allowing VST support, the greater issue is third party support and this is why:

    Third party software challenges the quality of your own modules. Steinberg has to keep updating their synths or they will be left behind other VST support. VST companies generally will create better modules the host company's module, mainly due to the fact that the VST company can focus primarily on the VST and the host's main focus will always be the stability of the host. The Host, if using a standard VST interface, can anticipate the protocol (as it is standardized) and easily integrate each unit properly. Of course there is more overhead on the VST client as well as the Host (so more ram and cpu is needed) but you have the flexibility and quality desired. This is why Cubase, along with other host software, have introduced the concept of 'freezing' the track - basically creating a render of the track and then playing the wav in the place of the actual vst in order to save memory and cpu.

    In Reason's case, their main focus will always be the host and not the modules. If the host fails, the modules don't matter. To them, the modules really are a liability and they won't ever try cutting edge technology. Since they have a stable unit, it would be unnecessary to really do anything else.

    If Reason opened their code to allow for custom modules (not reuse, but creating what they haven't) or if they allowed some kind of plugin support, I would be still using Reason.

    6) The Cubase 4.0 crossgrade version was about the same price as Full Reason 4 (non upgrade) and I felt that if I were to switch at any time, financially this was my opportunity.

    Do I regret using and/or owning Reason? No, it was a great piece of software to write music, and I enjoyed the interface and experience quite a bit. I put together some songs I really love and I'm glad Propellerheads put it together. It can produce powerful sounds and can do some pretty neat things. I still plan on using it when I go on road trips (on my laptop), but my serious work will be done on Cubase.

    Do I think Reason sucks? No, I just feel that it's lack of third party support doesn't create the quality control or 'checks and balances' that the company needs.

    Do I think FL is the bomb? No, I used FL a few times, and I really didn't like the interface too much for very shallow reasons... like.... it really is way too fruity for me.

    Does Cubase provide better tools that Reason? Well, yeah... it really does. Even the defaults are very nice.

    Is Cubase perfect? No, they have a ton of problems and are also losing their user base to Sonar (ironically there are a ton of Reason converts on the Cubase forums - like there are a TON of rewire and reason discussions). Cubase 4.0 had a ton of bugs and the developers are pretty slow at addressing them - but they have updates once every 3-4 months... Note that Reason had updates like once every 2 years... I think Cubase 4.1.3 addresses some issues, and I hope they patch some of them sooner than later.

    About VSTs: VST doesn't mean quality - and anyone who thinks I thought the grass was greener on the other side probably didn't know I used to use VST's in Acid Pro and Logic (pre-Apple) before I switched to Reason. VST can mean crap, and there is a lot of it out there. The VSTs now (compared to Reason 1.0 days) are incredibly better and have good customer support. I'm looking into buying some Native Instrument packages currently - and the drum machine called 'Guru' is pretty hot. VSTs can produce problems, but I don't agree it would mean lack of stability, unless the Propellerhead software developers aren't skilled enough or the current Reason architecture uses legacy code and can't handle new features - Then I would agree that it would reduce stability, if you've ever programmed VST software for fun, you'll understand what I mean that stability should not be a problem. You import a lowsy VST that crashes/lags your entire environment (ie it doesn't work). You delete the files and restart Reason - No problems. The real reason that the Reason team doesn't want the VST support is because of the competition it would create between their own developers and NI, Spectrasonics, reFX, Rob Papen, and other VST developer teams. It's easier to not have to deal with competition, especially when you are so proud of your progress..... With that said, because stability is NOT the main reason that Reason doesn't support VST and 'control' is, you will never see third party or vst support.

    In conclusion - I'm pretty sad that I left Reason, I really liked the setup, the interface, even the new sequencer. Thor looked promising and I really liked the additional arpeggiator and that groove beat thingy I played with quite a bit in the beta. I just don't like the direction that Reason is heading (and has been heading) - and it's not that they've changed direction, I have changed/matured musically. Through working in several software development teams, I can see through Propellerheads much easier and I don't think they'll change in the direction that would fit my growth.

    THE TLDR VERSION

    Sorry Reason, It's not you.... it's me...

    We've just... grown apart...

    I think we can still 'just' be friends! ... right?

  6. Posted · Report reply

    I loved spike tv for this - playing the old versions of Indiana Jones within the last week was a nice 'prep' for this new film.

    This way we can see all the new wrinkles and gray patches the guy has =D.

    Seriously, Harrison Ford rocks, but dude is old.

  7. Posted · Report reply

    I'm doing something on Anime Remix like this in the next release (goal is before June)... BUT...

    The mouse-over popup menu thingy that you're using is currently 'under' the fm play <object> tag.

    This is some code from AR that I used to fix this problem. It's real simple but it was a pain to find the solution online.

    :sleepdepriv:

    <param name="wmode" value="transparent">

    Oh, and of course you should add it to embed just for browser compatibility issues

    <embed 
    		...
    		wmode="transparent"
    		...
    />

    This will allow divs with the proper index the availability to appear over this kind of object.

  8. Posted · Report reply

    He always treated me with great respect. He was very sincere and talented with his music and apparently with his sports & modeling. I wish we had more great men like him.

    With regards to Anime Remix - we had some amazing feedback with regard from some of his submissions, and the quality and emotion in these tracks inspired many of us to push musically to achieve the same level of excellence. Truly a great musician with a big heart.

    My sincere prayers and condolences to his family and friends.

  9. Posted · Report reply

    So, I walked into a Gamestop today and was spending a bit of time browsing, when I heard a familiar song in the background... "Son of Chaos". I had to get closer to the sound system to be sure. I asked the manager who made the playlist, and he said he did, and I asked what it was and he said "oh that's from OCRemix.org!" I asked the second question, of course, because I wasn't sure if he knew the source of the music (hey, some people don't.)

    Anyway, I introduced myself and Jill and he was thrilled to have us there. He's apparently a huge fan of OCR and VotL - he grabbed it the day it came out. Other mixes played (while I was there) included "Airships Make Me Happy" and "Adrenalyne Kyck". I'm sure he had more queued up, but I didn't have a lot of time to spare.

    Good to know, eh? :)

    That just made my week - seriously, I'm like trippin' now.

  13. Posted · Report reply

    Considering I'm partial to trance, heavy guitars, and industrial - it would be hard for me to rate the majority of these songs with anything less than a 9/10.

    I would have to say some of my favorite guitar heavy pieces are:

    1.1) LuizA - Materia Junkie

    - Absolutely amazing guitar work and interpretation of the original song. I can honestly say that if I remixed this piece I would have done something along the exact same lines. Hit me up sometime if you want to collab. This is probably my favorite song on the album. Seriously fucking amazing.

    1.2) norg, SnappleMan - Full Frontal Assault

    - Phenomenal guitar work. Basically if your guitars are live, you want them to be as perfect as possible. If your guitars are fake, you want them to be as random/lifelike as possible. Whatever you did - they sound absolutely amazing.

    1.3) Sixto Sounds, zircon - Lunatic Moon

    - Very interesting arrangement. I love the concepts behind it and the synth/guitar work. You can definitely see the touch of zircon and the work of Sixto in here. The genres are played very well, I would only like to see a better transition between the heavy grunge (death/black metal grunge work) and the softer part around :50. That, and during the heavier parts the treble seems to take a bit of a hit. With all that said - I would love to see this thing live between the both of you at some concert.

    2)Fishy - Omnislash

    - Love the guitar work. Listen to the solo around 1:30+. Seriously amazing work.

    3) Darangen - Collision

    - Synth and Guitar work are pretty good. The drum sound engineering could use some cleaning up. The concepts are pretty good. This is one of those epic guitar songs that I would just love to hear some singing in. I hope you record a version with vocals in the future.

    I would have to say some of my favorite trance/techno pieces are:

    1) bLiNd, Leifo - Fading Entity

    - This is my favorite trance song on the album. Laid back, yet it has a very driving beat. Again, the rhythm is very static, the break points vary up the static rhythm. Love the guitar work - very well placed and professionally mixed. Again - this is my favorite trance song on the album.

    2) FFmusic Dj - Ahead On Our Rave

    - Happy Hardcore LOL? Not a big fan of the genre tbh, however he did use some really cutting edge samples for percussion, synth , and sound engineering work. Notice how the bass drum actually hits a high and low set of frequencies, very tight - the bass is slightly higher in frequency (at least on these headphones). Definitely on the cutting edge, even if it isn't a genre I particularly like. Rhythm is relatively dynamic (follows that thing I was saying earlier). I would say technically speaking this is the best trance song on the album - though not my favorite.

    3) tefnek - motor crazycycle

    - What a unique take on the motorcycle song. This was one of those songs that I really wasn't looking forward to the remix of - because if taken pretty literally would be pretty boring. Pretty heavy techno if you're into that stuff. Definitely some great harmonic devices going on in this piece. The only thing that really drove me up the wall was the drumline. For most techno - especially progressive techno (which this is not) if you take out the synths, the drumline should be interesting enough to be it's own song. Though there are changes in the rhythm, I would say that the synths/pads really drive this piece. The sound engineering is professional (incredibly clean channels and perfect mastering). All in all, very creative piece and professionally mixed. The drumline thing I mentioned is ridiculously picky just because I listen to a crapload of trance/techno.

    4) bLiNd - JENOVA Celestial

    - Great trance music. Awesome synths, lovely pads, great break, well mastered. Again, only gripe is the rhythm. I understand it's not progressive trance - but very very well done. Probably one of my favorites.

    I would have to say some of my favorite industrial pieces are:

    1) sephfire, sgx - No Such Thing As the Promised Land

    - Sure there is! wait... Ok alright, this is probably my favorite industrial song on the album. Very dynamic - love the choice of drums/synths/fx etc. Very creepy - what else could you ask for? Maybe some equalizing that gives some of the channels the usage of the higher frequency ranges.

    2) Tweek - Sephiroth's Wake

    - Clean, good mastering for the most part - interesting choices of synths (I think they make it almost happy). However that almost happy feeling is destroyed around 1:52. Great work on this piece.

    Xaleph - Son of Chaos

    - What I'm not allowed to like or review my own piece? Since the gauntlets are off with my own stuff here I go. The rhythm is a bit lackluster, the choirs clip in the beginning slightly, the ending is boring, and that synth solo is just kind of... thin and boring. Other than that it's one of my favorite pieces =P (and I still listen to it).

    Anyways those were my favorites - though mainly because of genre. Out of genre, Zircon/Pixie had a great piece, djpretzel/Vig with his clean sound engineering and guitar work (Tifa song couldn't have been easy to mix), and the Costa de Sol mix by RTF - that jazz is just awesome man.

    Great work guys ^_^.

  15. Posted · Report reply

    No offense, but is any of this discussion getting Matt closer to the answer he needs?

    His question regards arrangements that, correct me if I'm wrong, are actual derivate works that change the fundamental character of the work, since like OCR, Anime Remix's tracks aren't 1-for-1 arrangements, but rather interpretations.

    May need djp to chime in on how he corresponded with Last.fm to be clear. I just wanna make sure we're not going off the rails in the attempt to answer the original question.

    I have to head out from work, but yeah - that's about right. Obviously ocremix did something that provided protection and explanation through the law. I need to know what that is/was. Zircon suggested that ocremix may have registered as an official non-profit. I wonder if this is what gives ocremix the protection. In which case I'll do the same for AR.

  16. Posted · Report reply

    From the FAQ:

    The arranger owns their rights to their particular arrangement. He/she does not own the rights to the original song though.

    I agree with you - obviously this guy does not. Even the MPA disagrees with that.

    http://www.mpa.org/copyright_resource_center/copying

    Can I Make A Band Arrangement Of A Copyrighted Piano Solo? Can I Make A Flute Arrangement Of A Copyrighted Work For Clarinet?

    No. Making any arrangement is a duplication, and permission must be obtained from the copyright owner.

  17. Posted · Report reply

    I was hoping to get some help from DJP or from some of the judges or remixers in the community.

    While uploading information from animeremix.org to last.fm - I ran into a slight issue while uploading Shael Riley's Chipmunk's remix. He's already registered as a "popular artist" and they're suggesting that both him and myself do not have rights to the song he arranged - they are suggesting that we need to get the consent of the original artist.

    How did ocremix get around this in order to put stuff up on last.fm? I was looking at section 107 of the copyright laws (fair use doctrine), I'm not a lawyer but I understand a good portion of it. Now last.fm is in England if I remember correctly - but since the original music was in America (in this case) I'd imagine that it would fall under American copyright laws.

    Hi Matt,

    We can only accept remixes if you control the rights for the original

    song which the music was taken to or have been granted the rights to remix.

    Please let me know what your situation is regarding this.

    Thanks,

    Matt

    So do I need to come up with a terms of use and that other jazz that ocremix came up with to suggest ownership of these remixes? Do you guys have a lawyer working with you to help resolve these issues? What do I need to do in order to resolve this?

    Also feel free to give me a call about this if you have my number - it's very important to me that this doesn't become something it's not.

  18. Posted · Report reply

    A while back I had done a lot of research on the kind of midi controlling hardware (keyboard) that I wanted to use.

    My situation was a little different though, I use a laptop to do a lot of my "doodles" and then use my main system for more professional mastering (and audio recording etc etc). So I wanted something that made it easy for me to travel, and still compose good music.

    I ended up finding a great solution, and I got it for a great price off of ebay (practically new) with a lot of it's accessories (backpack and other parts).

    On zzounds (as zircon used in his post) you can find the sources here:

    Backpack

    $69.95

    M-Audio Oxygen 8 v2

    $119.00

    Now I got mine a while back, and it's the previous version of Oxygen 8 (whose setup I liked quite a bit, larger mod wheels and pitch bend wheel).

    It has 25 keys, mod/pitch wheels, it has some nice knobs you can determine through your software what you want them to control, it has a midi channel selector, and buttons to change your octave set. The new version has quite a few more options, but the older model certainly do what I bought it for. It's great, you don't need to use a power cable or anything, just connect the usb cable and it's automatically powered. I use this on business trips, family trips, in the car if I'm not driving, on planes, and many times at home because it's easier to set up than getting all my gear connected (and then having to put it away when I'm done). It's space efficient and simple. I'm not saying it's a must have, but I would highly recommend it for software composition.

  21. Posted · Report reply

    Psy and goa trance have a very specific set of rules that make it what it is. For the longest time, I thought some of my earlier stuff was psy or goa - in reality it was industrial trance or industrial techno. I would certainly call this industrial trance/techno. With that said, I think your stuff is pretty cool - certainly mastering will come with time of practice, I would say first focus on composition and ideas. Keep coming up with what Prophecy and GLL call "doodles" - basically just songs that aren't particularly anything in particular, but just a bunch of neat ideas. That's how you really get better. Take an idea and go with it. I think it's really neat to see someone start off with the same genres that I did (your stuff sounds uncannily like my first pieces =X).

    As far as goa and psy, check out Infected Mushroom's earlier stuff as well as Astral Projection. If you want to hear some of the more modern psytrance, Misted Muppets is definitely pure psytrance (they don't really deviate from the norm) if you want to hear the actual genre in it's pure form. Astral Projection is considered "Dawn" psytrance (or morning psytrance) and Infected Mushroom would be considered "Dusk" psytrance (or night psytrance). Misted Muppets would definitely fall under night psytrance as an fyi. The reason DJs call them with this genre, is that in psytrance clubs - it's when they play the music. Anyways check out the artists I've mentioned - they really give a great foundation for psytrance.

    Generally you'll find psytrance is around 140-150 bpm, there is psy chillout which is incredibly slow ambient style psychedelic music (same synths and pads - just very slow) and psychedelic which is pretty slow (100-135 bpm, sometimes slower).

    As far as critiquing the music you've proposed, Suspended could use more percussive work - if you take all musical components out of the song except the percussion, is it something that you could still produce as a song? If not, try adding more variations to really produce that song. It'll make it much more dynamic and exciting. The bassline really needs some action - try listening to other psytrance songs to understand how the bass is a part of the song. Generally psytrance (or goa) uses something called sidechain compression. Check that phrase out on google sometime - there are some nice tutorials out there.

    Anyways - concept is there, you need to refine what you've created, especially with the percussion and bass. These items will really drive your song and your melodic/harmonic devices will fall into place.

  22. Posted · Report reply

    Convince Ryan8bit to submit his Sierra game mixes. He's got this amazing King's Quest V mix that I've been badgering him about ever since I heard it in DoD, and even at MAGFest 5 he was talking about how unsure he was about it.

    Ryan8bit has always been very serious about his production - and the better you get the more you realized your previous stuff sucked (trust me, I'm not too proud of some of the songs I wrote a while back). It also makes you concerned about your new stuff, because it's hard to make a "perfect" piece in terms of production. There will always be something you don't like about your piece - especially if you're a very talented artist. This is why it's hard for anyone to convince him that his stuff is good enough. (btw - he's a great guy to work with)

    I realize this is very off topic BUT:

    We have some songs that will be coming out hopefully soon. We've re-established communication (for like a year of solitude) and we may start on some new mixes. As mentioned before, 3 pieces that we've produced that have never been on ocremix will be submitted before mid fall.

    As far as the judges go - you know how I feel. They're doing work that will always be controversial, they put their reputation on the spot every time they judge on a piece as their comments are put into the judge thread, they have to let the musician who put their whole heart into it that they didn't make the snuff (which is so hard to do), multiply this process by like 100 songs a month, and it just really is discouraging after all their hard work to get a thread that publicly disagrees with their decision. IMO it's a free site, lead by people who vote for free, to provide quality free songs, so that you don't spend your own free time trying to find quality free remixes. The fact that they do so much work for us is just awesome.

    And also, not only do the judges on ocr do the work, the judges on ocr do a great job at it - keep up the good work.

  25. Posted · Report reply

    Yeah, as of this week I'm a new dad. It's hard to describe what it's like looking at a baby (boy for me) and knowing that you helped create him and are responsible for him. Guess you just have to experience it for yourself to really get it. I don't think it's sunk in yet for me (though a few sleepless nights should take care of that :)

    So, are there any other parents here at OCR? Or am I just getting old?

    Yep I have a kid too ^_^